Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

It was reported on Friday that the Philippines demarcated so-called baselines of the territorial sea around China's Huangyan Dao and submitted a so-called official nautical chart to the United Nations (UN) Secretariat. On the same day, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement making the solemn position of the Chinese government and people crystal clear: "China firmly rejects and will never accept it." Manila's delusion that it can simply carve Huangyan Dao out of China's territory with a scrap of paper is nothing short of a pipe dream.

At its core, this move by the Philippines is a calculated piece of political opportunism. It uses the technical procedures of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to pull off a procedural stunt, while attempting a rerun of an old play backed by the so-called South China Sea arbitration award - an invalid ruling long consigned to the dustbin of history. Yet no matter how Manila tries to stir up trouble, China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Dao and its adjacent waters, as well as sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the relevant maritime areas. Solid in legal logic, concrete in evidence, firm in stance, and hitting directly at the vital point, China's statement deals Manila a crushing blow.

Since gaining independence in 1946, the Philippines has repeatedly attempted to expand its territory and jurisdictional waters through domestic legislation under the guise of international law. Such actions have long drawn widespread vigilance, aversion, and firm opposition from neighboring countries along the South China Sea. As early as 2024, when the Philippines unilaterally submitted an illegal claim on the extent of its undersea shelf in the South China Sea, neighboring countries, including China, Malaysia, and Vietnam, immediately issued stern rebuttals and voiced explicit opposition.

Manila's secondary motive for serving up these so-called maritime claims at the UN right now is to re-hype the "South China Sea arbitration award" amid its tenth anniversary. Manila certainly knows that Huangyan Dao belongs to China and that it stands zero chance legally. Yet it insists on staging this farce at the UN - less a legal battle against China than a cognitive and propaganda war, attempting to twist international law into a fig leaf for its false and deceptive narrative.

China not only possesses irrefutable evidence of its sovereignty over Huangyan Dao, but also the absolute strength and firm resolve to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maintain order in the South China Sea. Today, China's naval and air forces maintain regular deployments in the South China Sea, conducting precise, full-course monitoring and effectively deterring illegal infringements. 

This provides a formidable line of defense to firmly safeguard China's rights and interests in the South China Sea, completely crushing any country's despicable ambitions to encroach upon Chinese territory or destabilize the region. Manila is advised to genuinely respect China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and act as a law-abiding maritime country. Otherwise, every single provocation it makes will be beating its head against the iron wall of China's naval and air strength.